Politics

Vermont and the city of Burlington received a letter from U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions with a threat of potentially drying up federal funding if they continue to violate federal law, albeit it’s unclear if they even are.

It’s basically aiming at „sanctuary policies“ where cities and states adopt different approaches to immigration than the current national government. It’s sad to see the local and national representatives of the American people in disagreement when it comes to inclusion in the United States.

I always felt welcome in Vermont for those three years I lived there. I hope Senator Leahy, who held the commencement speech at my graduation, and Sanders will flex their political muscle and stay in tune with the Green Mountain’s spirit of „I live in Vermont and I do what I want.“

„The letter was an effort to „strong-arm“ the state to submit to federal immigration policies.“ – Peter Welch

„City’s green spaces were used for group meetings where nouvellistes à la bouche carefully maintained pipelines of information and others collected around a single well-informed individual – the bonhomme.“ (Stephens, 1997, pg 35).

I’ve been wondering how we can rediscover those green spaces in the city, where well-informed individuals actually do know, weigh in and listen, as opposed to those who unknowingly redistribute fake news, focus on inconsequential fluff or are better at crying for attention.

When listening to Obama’s last press conference this year, it dawned on me that the bonhomme will be harder to find in 2017. Albeit, I do have hope, because punk would have never been so strong without the politics of Thatcher.

I’ve had enough time to let Brexump sink in, it’s still sad to see, yet even with it’s reclusive element of echo chambers and half cooked truths, we’ll see new movements emerge even stronger, because there always is a counter model, the other. Bernie just showed a glimpse of what is possible.

Until then, we’ll have to deal with Brexump politics that rather halt progress and devolve relations with our interconnected planet. Both new political spheres are already lost in their own bubble, with pressure to walk the talk, giving way to renegades with counter models that actually work and reconnect with those who were distracted.

„I live in Vermont and I do what I want“ was a local tag line I picked up when I lived in the Green Mountain State for three years during college.

Vermont was a republic for a few years, it’s constitution was the first one in North America to provide for the abolition of slavery. Lake Champlain was connected to the western glacial lakes back in the real old days, now the Great Lakes, which is why Vermont has more native species than any other state in New England. It’s a unique state, small, albeit with clear sense of identity, progressive social politics, cold winters and is home to the birth of snowboarding, a real pedestrian zone in Burlington, as opposed to the countless, soulless malls of America.

With Bernie Sanders, Vermont is touting an independent presidential candidate, who has a solid shot of heading to the White House. What’s most compelling about Bernie is that his vision from the 80s still holds ground, it’s like „oh my god“ vintage, consistent to the idea that the common good is one worth fighting for, one that needs continual updates, where a virus scanner runs through the system, to check for imbalances and stashes away corrupted files into the quarantine.

You’ll hear about Bernie’s wild hair, his age or that his experience in Vermont is insignificant for the national stage. Or that big money rules politics, uhm Super PACs, even the polls are veering away from his ticket to the White House. It’ll be sad to see a candidate head to Washington who is everything but consistent, a pure power play who’ll copy anything, constantly change positions, spin around to make it fit, just to get the ticket.

RealClearPolitics with some numbers on November 1, 2015, where one line is going up and the other down.

Who do you believe will truly fight for the common good? Whose biography lives up to it’s words with action? Who can best connect the dots between the common, business and individual good? It’s great to see Bernie mobilize voters who see the change needed in the commons. I hope Bernie has enough time to mobilize more people who care about balancing the goods, yet still do what they want.